Cornerstone’s Philosophy of Youth Ministry
1. Cornerstone Youth are a Part of the Church
You may be scratching your head and thinking “Well, duh!” However, not all churches hold the opinion that their youth are a part of the church. Many churches see their youth ministries as entities separate from the church. These youth groups have their own meeting places, Sunday morning church services, and often have a “Youth Sunday,” where the youth are allowed to be involved in the Sunday service. Sometimes these separate groups even go so far as to call themselves “Youth churches.”
Cornerstone, on the other hand, believes the opposite. While youth may have their own meeting rooms, they are a small group like any other group in the church. The Over-Fifties group, Women in the Church [WIC], Men in the Church, children’s catechism, and other adult small groups are all different parts of the church, not entities separate from it. CYM is not a youth church, does not have its own Sunday morning service, and does not seek to separate itself from the church body. Instead, it attempts to include the youth in the church as much as possible, serving in the church nursery or on the take-down teams, or joining in all church activities like the church picnic or Christmas caroling. Cornerstone does not offer “Youth Missions Trips;” it organizes whole church mission trips on which youth are involved. The youth do not have their own Sunday morning worship team; they participate on adult worship teams with the rest of the church. CYM is not separate from the rest of the church, but a viable part of it. While there may be separate Sunday night meetings for youth, these meetings never supplant the youth’s connection with the rest of the church body.
Not only do the youth participate in the life of the church, the church participates in the life of the youth. One way this is done is by hiring a full-time staff member to minister to teens. One of the major questions is: "If the youth are not separate from the church, why do they have their own staff member.?" This is actually quite easy to answer. Working with youth is a full-time job! The age bracket of fifth grade through college consists of the formative years for a human being. What a teen becomes in those years will last the rest of their life. It is of such supreme importance that most churches hire a staff member specifically to organize ministry to that age group. Having full-time staff does not mean youth ministry is separate from the church, only that the church recognizes how important ministry to teens really is.
Other adults are involved in the life of teens as well. At Cornerstone, we attempt to involve as many adults with our teens as possible. This is accomplished by having an ongoing recruiting process for obtaining adult leaders. There is no magic number that will signal the end of recruiting. The more adult leaders there are to influence teens, the better. Adults are also always encouraged to participate in special activities like retreats and service projects. The more time youth spend with adults, the more time they have to learn from them. Adults serve as regular youth group leaders, small group leaders, chaperones, prayer partners, and Sunday School teachers. Without the service of close to fifty different adults, CYM would not be possible.
Youth being a part of the church also means that youth ministry is the church. Teens within the youth ministry are expected to minister and serve one another with an understanding that they serving the church as the body of Christ by serving each other. Our goal is to help teens understand what it means to be a part of and serve in the church. CYM exists not as a place for teens to slack off, but as a place for teens to serve and be trained to serve.
2. Cornerstone Youth are a Part of Families
We believe that it is the family’s job to raise a child in the “nurture and admonition of the Lord.” We are just here to help. CYM does not replace or supplant the ministry of the family. True, many families do not disciple their children like they should; and in such cases CYM ends up doing it for them. However, we hope that is a small minority. Our goal is to reinforce what parents are teaching their children at home and to be another authoritative voice in the life of teens. We hope that for the majority of teens it will only be redundant and a reinforcer of what they have already learned at home.
Since teens are not separate from families, family is included in the ministry as much as possible. Youth Ministry does not compete with families for their teens’ time. Instead, we strive to set up strategic times for families to spend time together. These include family outings, Mother/Daughter/Son and Father/Daughter/Son activity nights, and family athletic competitions. Besides regularly scheduled family activity nights, families are always encouraged to attend regular youth ministry activities like retreats and Bible Studies. If parents are the one’ responsible for discipling their children, it makes sense that we would include them in the church’s ministry to their teens.
CYM is part of large ministry at Cornerstone known as family ministries. Family Ministries encompasses Christian Education, children's ministry, youth ministry, Shepherd groups, child care, and special events. The goal of Family Ministries is the same as the youth ministry, to Impact families with the gospel and Impell them to live out their faith. Youth Ministry works with teens as part of the larger Families Ministries. Within Family Ministries, parents are trained, taught, and encouraged in the discipling of their own teens as they seek to fulfill the mandates of Deuteronomy 6 and Ephesians 6. Again, CYM is not simply a baby-sitting service. It does seek to minister to teens with the gospel, but with the understanding that Cornerstone's vision is to primarily impact teens by impacting the entire family with the gospel, equipping and enabling parents to minister to their own family.
3. Cornerstone Youth are a Part of Culture
Jesus said we are “in the world, but not of it.” Unfortunately, in an attempt to keep teens from being a part of the world, we often try to keep them out of it. At Cornerstone, we attempt to keep teens in the world as much as possible. We do not remove teens from culture; we intersect teens in culture. We meet teens where they are: at their schools, at their homes, and at their jobs. We teach teens how to be Christians in culture, not modern day monks. Many of our activities take place in culture as well. Non-Christian movies and discussions are often used, as well as service projects for non-Christian groups. CYM is not a cloister. Rather, it’s a recharging station. We strive to train students to live for Christ in culture, and encourage them once they have that training. We want them to be “in the world, not of it.”
4. Cornerstone Youth need Small Groups
It is our belief that teens need relationships with other teens and that they mutually encourage each other in their Christian walk. We try to plan activities which produce community within the youth ministry. These include small groups, dinner groups, and prayer groups.
Small groups are probably the most obvious application of this tenet. We believe that small groups are a crucial part to any youth ministry, whatever activity the small group is doing. In some cases, we feel that the group simply eating together causes a great bonding to occur within the group.
5. Cornerstone Youth Need Growth in All Areas of Life
In Luke 2:52, we read that “Jesus grew in wisdom, stature, and in favor with God and Man.” We believe that this shows that Jesus grew mentally, physically, spiritually, and socially. We believe that the Bible applies to all of life. It is then our goal to teach students how the Bible applies physically, mentally, emotional, socially, and morally.
6. Cornerstone Youth Need to be Challenged
Our goal is to instill real life change and we believe this cannot be done by allowing students to be comfortable. In Youth Ministry circles, this is often called “disequillibration.” We do not allow students to remain comfortable in their Sunday Christianity. Many students have complained about the length of time spent in praise and worship at the Sunday night youth ministry meeting. If we wanted teens to be comfortable, we would only have praise and worship for three minutes. Instead, we challenge them by having it for thirty. We want students to have fun, but we are not babysitters. Within CYM we want to challenge students in their Christian walk. That means taking them out of their comfort zone and adding a little discomfort to their lives. This involves service projects, in-depth Bible studies, and a little bit of programmed chaos.
7. Cornerstone Youth Want to be Like Cornerstone Adults
No self-respecting teenager would ever admit that they want to be like an adult, but we believe it is definitely true. Teens look up to and emulate adults. If adults imitate Christ, teens imitating adults will end up emulating Christ.
8. Cornerstone Youth Should Lead their Own Group
Leadership is one of the most sought after qualities in today’s job market. It is our opinion that since this is a “youth” group, youth should lead it. One youth pastor has pinned on his wall a sign reading “Do it with them, do not do it for them.” We expect youth to be involved in the leadership and running of their own group, whether through leading small groups, praise and worship, or service projects. Adult leaders serve as mentors and directors while teens are involved in the hands-on leadership.
9. Youth Ministry is an Incarnational Ministry
Quite simply, teens see Jesus in us. We do not claim to be Jesus Christ Incarnate, but 2 Corinthians 5 says it is as though God were making His appeal to the world through us. We are ambassadors; which means we reflect Christ to the world around us. They see Christ in us.
10. Cornerstone Youth Need Action
Simply put, games have a vital part within youth ministry. We believe that teens bond with other teens on their teams and learn what it means to be a Christian physically. Being competitive is good, but all out competition can be bad. We try not to keep score and there is no set winner or loser. It is only for the joy of the game.
11. Topical Versus Exegetical Bible Study
All scripture was written in context. To remove only verses that speak of a specific topic and view them outside of their intended context is dangerous. Study of topics then must take place exegetically within their intended context and usually require the need to be exhaustive. Since this is difficult and time consuming, we prefer to study the books of the Bible exegetically or topics exegetically, one or two passages at a time, dealing with topics as they are brought up by scripture. Topical Bible studies are not wrong, just difficult to accomplish within the time allotted.
12. There is No Such Thing as Cookie Cutter Ministry
Youth Ministry is spontaneous and ever-changing. There is no one “right” way to do youth ministry. The way we do youth ministry now may change in a month or in a year. No matter the change, our theology and philosophy remain the same, only the application of it changes.
13. Unisex Ministry
It is our belief that guys and girls build more effective relationships with members of their own gender. Quite simple, ministry relationships are best built between two girls while dating relationships are best built between a guy and a girl. Deep discipling relationships are difficult between guys and girls because inevitably, one of the pair begins to think of the pair as more than friends. So, in order for a deep, discipling relationship to occur, the people must be of the same gender. Additionally, girls can best address the issues of other girls. What good would it do to have a girl teaching a guy how to be a Christian male? So, unisex ministry has a place within the youth ministry. At Cornerstone, this is accomplished through unisex small groups which meet for twenty minutes each meeting night.
14. Ministry Occurs in the Context of Relationships
Relationships are the key to ministry. Ministry does not occur in a vacuum. Instead, it takes place through relationships. Jesus ministered to those he knew. Paul ministered to people he knew. It has been said that a pastor’s first impression is what makes people decide whether or not he is worth listening to. Even that shallow of a relationship is necessary for ministry. Everything we do within CYM is to build relationships with teens. Once these relationships have been established, we will be able to speak the words of truth into teen’s lives.
15. Numbers do not matter
We do not play the numbers game. There is no minimum number of teens necessary to run a program or to have a Bible study. In fact, as stated above, the smaller the better. We do not need a quota to have an activity. Instead, we are willing to invest our time and energy in any number of students, even one.
